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Diamond VStream Review

Testing:

To properly test the Diamond VStream, I am going to simply see if the device will give me any sort of video output and to compare the picture quality that it is able to deliver to the picture quality delivered by an internal video card. The next step is going to be comparing the overall CPU and memory usage in the Windows Task Manager that is being utilized with an internal video card compared to the Diamond VStream, while using a video stress tester, MSI Kombustor. I am also going to test to see if the Diamond adapter is still able to display an output without a video card installed in the system. All of these tests are going to be done using a Samsung 24" computer monitor that has HDMI input support. The final test that I am going to perform is connecting my ASUS Eee PC 1000HE to the Diamond adapter and then to the TV in my living room and to ensure that I am going to be able to get surround sound and video display.

The first test that I want to perform is a picture quality comparison. Here I am going to set the resolution of both displays to be 1280 x 800. Once this is done, I will open a full screen image on both of the displays to see if there are any differences. The picture that I am going to use is an HDR image of a forest scene that I took quite some time back. The size of this image was reduced to 1920 x 1279, so that it would mostly fit on the screen at 100% zoom. A copy is pictured below.

Both of the images on either display looked identical, there were no changes between using the GPU and the Diamond VStream device to view the image.

PowerColor HD6950 PCS+ @ 1280 x 800 Diamond VStream @ 1280 x 800

System Resources:

The next test that I am going to do is what I call the System Resources test. Here I am going to run MSI Kombustor to stress the video adapter to see how much memory and CPU power is required while Kombustor is running. I will be running this test with the Diamond VStream adapter installed as well as with the VStream adapter removed to test the GPU itself. I will be using the DX11 test, resolution of 1280 x 800 and 8x AA; I will let the test run for 15 minutes on both devices and at the end of the 15 minute session I will check to see what the PCU usage and Memory usage are for MSIKombustorDX11.exe *32 in the Windows Task Manager.

PowerColor HD6950 PCS+ @ 1280 x 800 Diamond VStream @ 1280 x 800

Stand-Alone Video Adapter:

The next step to the testing is to see if the Diamond VStream device is going to be able to function as a standalone video device. To test this, I am going to remove the GPU from the system and see if I am able to boot into Windows and have a video display. Once I removed the GPU from my system, I still had the VStream device connected via the wireless adapter, however as soon as I pressed the power button on my chassis, the system just hung and was unable to move forward. So unfortunately, the Diamond VStream device is not going to be an alternative to having a GPU installed in your system.

TV Hookup via Netbook:

The main feature pushed by Diamond with the VStream device is that you can wirelessly stream the content displayed on your computer via a USB port to your HDTV in your living room. This is the final test that I am going to perform on the Diamond VStream. So I grabbed my ASUS Eee PC 1000HE, installed the drivers and software, and took it out to my living room. I plugged the VStream HD Base into my Phillips 42" Plasma HDTV with the included HDMI cable and booted up my netbook. After I changed the settings to be able to get the best image on my screen, I went to Netflix's website and clicked on the next movie in my queue, which happened to be Liar Liar with Jim Carey. The results of this test went quite well and yes the Diamond VStream was able to transmit the video and audio signal to my TV in my living room! However, there was a slight delay in the process. Watching only the video on the TV, you would never even notice this. But, if you have both displays in your view, it is easy to see that the display on the netbook was a second ahead of what the TV was showing. The slight delay between the laptop and TV had no affect on the Audio, which was able to match up perfectly. The picture quality itself was not the best that I had ever seen, however this is a limitation of my Netbook and not the Diamond VStream.